Thursday, October 31, 2013

Another Blast From The Past - No Faces

I was a grip on a senior film my second year at BGSU. This is a trailer for the short film. It was shot on Super 16 and the script was from a screenwriting class the semester before. It has all the hallmearks of a student film; guns, mobsters, drugs and melodrama...

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The Art of Editing in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

A very interesting analysis of the editing in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Max Tohline. It's always intriguing to me when people are capable of breaking down scenes to their core components. Normally I'm just enjoying the film, but it's always fun to see exactly why I'm enjoying one film more than another. That and Clint Eastwood is just a badass.

OK Go - I'm Not Through

Everyone that knows OK Go knows how over the top and crazy their music videos tend to be.  They've made it their business to create viral music videos with every hit, but this time, in another brilliant tactic, they looked the fans for their inspiration.  OK Go held the Saatchi & Saatchi Music Video Competition and the winning video can be seen below.  It's a really fun idea with a very OK Go feel to it.



The video below was the viewer's favorite. This one went a totally different angle. More story driven, very well shot, and some really nice effects. I must say, after seeing this one, I think the only reason the other video won was because it felt more "OK Go". While both are amazing, I think I like the viewer's choice better as a music video. I mean honestly, who doesn't want to see some little kid traveling through time to make it right with a girl.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Fight!

There are so many things to love about this animation from Marc James Roels. The music, the composition, and the style of the characters. But above all else I love how they made such a light and soft material look as though it carries massive weight. The shot of the two characters falling through air makes my eyes light up.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Pitch Videos

"Pitch videos are a part of every directors job. More often than not the footage is never seen beyond "the pitch". Here are some clips from a pitch video that was unfortunately never awarded..."

-Tony Benna

pitch videos from tony benna on Vimeo.

Future of Storytelling

I'm going to ride Jackie's coat tails on this one. It started with her last post on "Authentic Storytelling + Connecting the Physical & Digital Worlds" (which has no tags... Jackie). There's a whole channel of videos like this.

Here are some of my favorite so far. The first one will look very familiar to both Micah and Brian...

This one is great because I'm always interested in the way that pop culture and entertainment have an influence on science and vise versa...

SHAKE

First time I've ever seen a dog with dreads before...

Something funny of almost no artistic value

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Authentic Storytelling + Connecting the Physical & Digital Worlds

This is pretty incredible...

Apparently she's leaving Burberry to head up Apple's online and retail stores.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Gravity

The new season of SNL is in its 3rd week. After the popularity of Gravity, SNL decided to work it into their cold open this past weekend. Also, with the revitalized cast, Beck Bennet and Kyle Mooney from Good Neighbor now make shorts for the show.


Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Sound of Gravity

I've been annoying people about Gravity ever since I saw in last week. My sometimes over-exciting advocacy for the perfect cinema experience combined with Dave's acoustic romance yields Alfonso Cuarón's words. This featurette might tempt you to go see it!
SoundWorks Collection: The Sound of Gravity from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

The Paper Kites: Young

This struck me as something we could do with Hampton or any of our clients with a conference.


The Paper Kites: Young from Oh Yeah Wow on Vimeo.

Someone got in Micah's Brain

Boats from Justin Dec on Vimeo.

Monday, October 7, 2013

I Made a Video this Past Weekend!

Here's a video I made over the weekend. A student at BGSU wanted to bring CHAARG, a women's fitness/health organization, to BGSU. Watch it first, then read my notes below. Comment your comments!!



I  was given 1 day to concept, script, and storyboard, 2 days to shoot, and half a day to edit.

  • I used a 7D
  • Almost entirely shot with the 28-135mm. Landscape, especially towards the end and shots of the different buildings were shot with the 16-35mm.
  • No lighting. It was overcast the entire shoot. Had to work around the rain.
  • VO was done in Studio A.


Things I liked/worked
  • The animation. Short and simple.
  • The story is okay. Could've used more work, though.
  • Close ups of the runner were filmed with her running in place. I tried to get my hands on a steady-rig, but this worked out much better. I had a lot more control.
  • Battery died right after the first take on the last shot. WINNING.
  • I filmed more than I needed. I had a lot of footage to work with. I didn't feel like I was stretching clips thin.
Things I didn't like/didn't work
  • The first quarter of the shoot I was on Aperture Priority. Dumbass!
  • I wanted to foreshadow later clips (country road, gravel, corn)  in the beginning, but I couldn't get the edit right to make it feel natural or cool.
  • Virtually no color correction. I took one pass, I'm so used to SpeedGrade's controls now. I didn't have time to fix a lot of the over exposure and flatness.
  • I wish I was given more time to work on all areas of the video.

Best of G.I. Joe PSAs

As per our discussion this morning.

Friday, October 4, 2013

HTML Parallax Story Book

Ran across a link on Twitter that sent me to this neat site. It is a story that uses some crazy parallax techniques. It sort of makes me think of a pop up story book. Check it out on their site: http://hobolobo.net/

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Coca-Cola "Happiness Is Movement"

This little piece from Antfood for Coca-Cola oozes happiness.  There were definitely a few moment that made me smile, that's for sure.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Digital Creativity Guidebook by Google

I shared this with Chris, but wanted to capture it here as well.  Another "what does google do" animation, this time with a fun animated pop-up-book.  This could be an interesting way to take a slick 2-D animated style like the one Chris continues to perfect, and add another dimension to it.



The Digital Creativity Guidebook on Creative Sandbox by Google from Shotopop on Vimeo.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Need more Lens Flare!

We've all done it. You learn a new technique and want to use it as much as possible. Read - J.J. Abrams talks/apologizes about his use of lens flares. What techniques have you overused? For me, it was using 'text-shadow' in CSS. Now when I see it in my work, I just think 'why?'.